1. It is possible that the student is lacking energy and is unable to stay awake.
2. I would test this hypothesis by having the student take a cup of cafe or any type of drink that has caffeine in it before the start of class. If the student stayed awake, this would support my hypothesis. If he fell asleep anyway, it would suggest that my hypothesis was falsified.
3. An example of an untestable, unfalsifiable explanation would be that no matter what the student is lazy and does not care about his education or about what is going on around him. The student barely has enough energy to walk around.
Loera,
ReplyDeleteThe student's lack of energy could be caused by numerous factors (rooster crows to early in the morning, neighbors playing loud music at night, newborn baby, working odd hours, etc.)
With respect to your untestable hypothesis, I believe that this could still be testable in a since. Due to the nature of the student's laziness and inability to care about his studies, you could examine this thought by changing the health lifestyle of the student. Laziness is due to the one's own disinclined ability to work, sluggishness, etc. So, one could propose that before the class starts, the instructor can institute that the class walk around the campus for 10 minutes before lecture. If the student stays awake during the lecture, then it proves your hypothesis (lack of energy), because excersise promotes energy. This influences a "get up and go" kind of mentality.
Another experiment would be to have the instructor ask his class to compromise a list of things that the students want to accomplish that day, in life, and in turn have them apply this to the clourse(yet this proposition is in itself, hard to test). This could encourage self-motivation.
Additionally, laziness can be also due to as you stated, lack of sleep and uncomfortability. The instructor could impose a rule that students must bring (as you stated) some type of caffenated drink to class.
Although I think you had a great hypothesis as to why the student was not able to stay awake. I have to disagree with your un-testable explanation. It is possible that the student is not lazy and perhaps has a medical condition that makes him excessively tired. My husband has a seizure condition and the medication he takes causes severe drowsiness. A cup of coffee or tea would not work to keep him awake. Although I wouldn't rule out laziness, I wouldn't make it my first assumption.
ReplyDelete- Kelly Morales-Barry
Good on the hypothesis. I can think of a couple of ways to test the "lazyness" hypothesis, however. For it to be untestable, it must be unobservable in any possible way.
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